Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II)
Page 14
“Well, no one asked you to start three businesses,” May argued back. “You do it because you like it. I guess you don't really want to have any time off.”
“You're right. I do like it, and I'm gonna keep doing it. Nothing succeeds like success.”
“Don't you care at all about your little sister turning into a hermit before your very eyes?”
Silas looked up from his phone. He glanced back and forth between his two sisters. “Of course, I care. What makes you think Briar even wants me to come with you? Last I heard, she didn't want to go with you herself.”
May rounded on Briar. “What about it, Briar? Will you come if Silas comes with us?”
Briar caved. “All right. If it means that much to both of you, I'll come.”
May turned back to Silas. “See?”
He shrugged. His eyes migrated back to his phone. “Well, I don't know....”
Just then, a couple came down the stairs from the upstairs apartment. Dana MacAllister balanced a laundry basket against her distended pregnant belly. She gave her sisters a hug and carried the basket out of the house.
Shaw Cunningham stood a few inches taller than Silas. His shoulders bulged under his denim jacket, and his beaten cowboy boots scuffed the carpet. He wore a crushed felt cowboy hat and a scruffy beard covering half his face. He scanned Silas up and down in his immaculate business clothes. He glared at him across the kitchen counter.
Silas glared back for a moment. Then he lowered his eyes and put his phone away. “I think I will come with you, May. Come on, Let's go.”
Silas led the way outside. The sisters followed, and the trio headed down the path into the woods. May pressed ahead to walk at Silas's side. “Why do you let Shaw intimidate you like that? You should stand up to him. You can't let him drive you out of your own house. That can only end one way.”
“I don't let him intimidate me. The simple fact remains he's bigger and stronger than I am. If I ever challenged him, he would drive me off. I would have to walk away from all my businesses. I would have to walk away from Ma and Pop and you girls and everything. Better to leave it as it is.”
“If you leave it as it is,” May replied, “he'll take over as Alpha when Pop dies. You don't want that. You can't let him rob you of your rightful inheritance.”
“Rightful inheritance has nothing to do with it. We're Bruins. The Alpha position goes to the strongest. Shaw is stronger than I am, so he deserves to be Alpha. Look at Mattox Farrell. He took over his wife's family. Everyone acknowledges he's the best man for the job.”
“Well, Shaw isn't Mattox Farrell and he's not the best man for the job. You are.”
Briar broke in on their conversation from a few steps behind. “May's right. Shaw taking over the MacAllister tribe would be a disaster for all of us. You have to beat him, Silas. You have to be Alpha.”
“What's so bad about Shaw? He's all right. He's the same kind of Bruin as the rest of us.”
“Oh, come on, Silas!” May exclaimed. “You know he's just about the worst man we could get as Alpha. He's a brute. All he cares about is throwing his weight around the place. He doesn't have your business savvy. He doesn't have your sense of planning for the future. I don't think he even knows how to use a computer. Besides, he hardly ever bathes.”
“Well, none of that matters in an Alpha challenge,” Silas replied. “He could tear me apart. That's all that matters.”
“Not always,” Briar added. “If you gathered the support of the rest of our tribe, he wouldn't be able to attack you. You don't have to be physically stronger than him to take over as Alpha. All you really need is a majority of our tribe backing you. If people see our future lies with you and they are willing to stand up to Shaw and say it out loud, you could challenge him without fighting. You could still win.”
Silas cast a glance over his shoulder at his younger sister, and a gleam danced in his eyes. He didn't say anything, but all three siblings knew Briar was right. Raw muscle only carried a potential Alpha so far in the political world of Bruins' Peak.
Silas turned his back on Briar and kept pushing his way uphill into the forest, but Briar watched her brother from behind. Silas didn't normally sell himself short when it came to meeting a thorny obstacle head on. He could fight with the best of 'em, too, because he fought with his brains, not just his muscles.
Maybe he had some other reason to avoid challenging Shaw right now. Maybe delaying worked better with his long-term plans. That calculating foresight matched better with Briar's idea of her brother. Planning and strategy won the day with Silas MacAllister. When the time came, he would squash Shaw like a bug and the whole tribe would be better for it.
The three siblings worked their way uphill onto the tableland adjoining MacAllister territory and Dunlap territory. Silas pressed ahead, and in the end, he broke into a run. “Last one in is a rotten egg!”
Before the words got out of his mouth, he stripped off his shirt to reveal the new wing tattoos covering his shoulders across his back. He tossed the shirt over a tree branch, kicked off his pants, and dove head first into the swimming hole tucked between two hills.
Chapter 2
The bear stuck his nose through the bushes and sniffed. A smell caught his senses, but he didn't dare take another step. He recognized that scent from other places in the woods, but never so strong as now.
He heard voices out of sight. He ought to run from them, but the voices got all tangled up in his mind with that scent. He pushed his way through the bushes to get a better look. That scent dug into his skin and dragged him out against his will.
The sun flickered between the tree branches and struck his eyes. He blinked and squinted with just his shaggy head out in the open. In the distance, the stream sparkled in the sunshine. The voices echoed off stone walls, and water tinkled and splashed along with the voices.
The bear caught sight of two girls frolicking in the swimming hole. Where the water tumbled over mossy rocks, another brown bear stood ankle-deep in a pool. That bear stared into the depths and didn't notice anyone watching him.
All at once, the bear in the stream pounced. He plunged his muzzle into the water and came up with a glistening fish clamped in his jaws. He carried it in triumph to the bank, crouched down, and started eating it.
One of the girls waved her arms. “Yay, Silas! Good catch!”
She stumbled out toward the bear bent over his catch. He raised his head and growled a warning.
“Come on and share,” the girl chided. “I'm hungry.”
The sun flashed on the girl's dripping wet skin. She wore no clothes, and her burnished red-brown hair hung down her back. She skipped over the gravel, and halfway up the bank, she shifted into a gleaming she-bear.
She ambled over to her brother and sniffed the fish, but he only growled and bared his teeth. She licked his snout once and opened her mouth to take a bite when he launched himself off the ground to tackle her.
The she-bear tumbled backward with a squeal, but the male jumped on top of her growling. He opened his mouth and pretended to bite her, but he never closed his jaws. She did the same thing and batted him with her soft paws. Neither of them extended their claws to scratch.
The she-bear brought her legs up against her belly and kicked the male away hard. He rolled along the gravel and launched himself onto his feet. He came up tall and menacing, but instead of joining the attack, he stopped.
A moment later, a handsome, naked young man stood in place of the bear. “I don't want to play anymore. I have to get back.”
The she-bear rose on her hind legs and shifted into the naked woman. “What about your fish?”
He waved his hand. “You can have it. I'm going home. I've been out too long as it is.”
The girl glanced at the fish. Then she hurried after him. “Don't leave yet, Silas. We're just having fun here.”
He plucked a white shirt off the tree branch. “I know. You two keep playing. I have to go check on my parts delivery.”
He smiled at her and set to work buttoning his shirt. “You stay here. This is the best thing for you right now. You don't want to sit around the house all day.”
“You'll be sitting around the house all day.”
He chuckled. “You're starting to glow like you used to, Briar. You should come out here every day. You should take this place like medicine for what ails you, but I've got too many things going on to hang around here.”
Briar's shoulders slumped. She cast one last nostalgic glance at the swimming hole and picked her shirt off a rock nearby. “Oh, all right. I guess I'll go back, too.”
“You don't have to.”
She tugged the shirt over her head. “Come on, May. Let's get going. I have some mint to dry for Ma when we get home.”
May came out of the pool, and the two girls got dressed in time to catch up with Silas. He already shouldered his way down the path, and his hand went to his pocket to find his phone.
Briar paused right before she turned into the bushes to scan the pool. “I wish I hadn't stayed away from this place so long. I should have come here a long time ago.”
The bear in the bushes took one more step to break into the open. He didn't mean to, but something in that young woman's longing glance dragged him out. Her voice and her hair and her eyes spoke to some forgotten part of him. They made him want her to see him.
Her eye caught the movement, and she stopped in the act of turning around. “Hey, look. There's a bear over there.”
The others turned around at the same time. The old sizzle of danger stood the bear’s hair up along his back when they looked at him, but not that red-haired girl. Her eyes calmed him more than anything he ever knew.
“Who is he?” May asked. “I don't recognize him.”
Silas came back to where Briar stood. “Oh, that's just Riskin Dodd. He roams around this area now.”
“What's wrong with him?” Briar asked. “Why does he stand off like that? Why doesn't he come out and say hello?”
“Haven't you heard the story?” Silas asked. “He went a little crazy after Mattox Farrell drove him away from Mackenzie Homestead. Riskin was supposed to marry Lyric, but Mattox beat him in a fair fight and took over as Alpha in Riskin's place. He's never been the same since.”
Briar took a step closer. “Look at him. Look how scarred and dirty he is. I've never seen a Bruin like him before. That scar along his face looks nasty.”
“They say the challenge between him and Mattox was a real doozy. They say Riskin had to run away to save his own life. He never went home to get his injuries tended. He's been running wild in the woods ever since. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't shifted in all that time. He just lives out here as a bear. He'll probably stay like this forever. He never got over his defeat.”
Briar started back along the trail toward the pool. “Let's help him. He looks like he needs some loving care.”
Silas caught her by the arm. “Don't go near him. Leave him alone.”
“We can't leave a Bruin out here in distress.” Briar yanked her arm out of his grasp. “If there's a way to help him, we should do it.”
Silas shook his head, but she ventured back along the pool and inched up the stream toward the bear. She held out her hand and dropped into a crouch. “Come on. Come and say hello. I won't hurt you.”
The bear flared his nostrils toward that extended hand. There was that scent again. It came from her. Every sense strained to investigate her. Her hair dripped water down her shirt front and wet it so it stuck to her skin. Her chilled nipples pricked her shirt, and her pants hugged her hips around her ass when she squatted down.
Her green eyes searched his haunted face. They traced the scars around his muzzle and neck and shoulders. They lingered over the vicious gash stabbing down one corner of his eye. Her hand snuck just a little further forward, and she murmured under her breath. “That's it. I won't hurt you. No one's gonna hurt you now. It's all right. Come on out and say hello.”
All at once, he started back with a bare-toothed snarl. The moment he broke out of his trance, the danger overcame him. He shivered his lips back from his teeth and bellowed at her. He charged and slammed his big head into her chest.
Briar careened over backward in the gravel, but the bear already turned tail and crashed into the undergrowth, away from her. He ran some distance away, but that overpowering scent stopped him from leaving it too far behind.
What was it? What was she? She was bear, just like him. That he knew for certain, but no other bear scent worked on his tormented soul like hers. He spied on lots of Bruins around these mountains since he came to live as a bear. None of them ever held him like she did.
Even now, after he left her behind, her scent clung to him where he bucked her with his head. It wafted around his ears and drifted into his nose no matter how much he tried to scrape it off in the dirt. It drew him back to peek at her through the bushes.
Briar got up and dusted herself off. She walked back to her brother and sister. Silas shook his head again. “What did I tell you? You stay away from him.”
“I thought I could get him to talk to us. I thought he might want company. I've never seen a Bruin like him.”
“He's not like other Bruins. He's lost all connection with his people. He would attack you and hurt you as soon as look at you. Now, come on. I don't have all day.”
He started walking again, and the girls fell in line behind him. Briar brought up the rear, but at the last moment, she glanced back toward the pool. The bear shrank into the shadows to stop her from seeing him. A moment later, she disappeared.
Chapter 3
Briar moved around the Homestead kitchen. Silas and some other men sat in the living room and talked in murmurs, but Briar didn't pay any attention to them. She mashed herbs in her pestle and scraped the contents into a glass jar.
Her mother Iris supervised her. “You're getting so good at this I don't have to watch you anymore. If you keep doing this good work, I might start sending you out to visit patients.”
Briar didn't answer. She started stripping dried mint leaves off their stalks onto a piece of newspaper.
Iris stopped what she was doing. “Did you hear what I just said, Briar?”
Briar looked up. “Do you know anything about Riskin Dodd?”
Iris stared at her. “What?”
“Riskin Dodd. Did you know he's living out rough as a bear since his defeat at the Mackenzies'?”
Iris went back to stirring a pot of boiling rose hip syrup. “I don't know anything more than what you just told me. They say he doesn't shift anymore.”
“He's injured. Silas says he never had his injuries tended before he went off to the woods.”
“So, what if he didn't?”
“We spotted him out by the old swimming hole,” Briar told her. “He's all scarred up, and he's aggressive and mean. He attacked me when I tried to go near him.”
“All the more reason you shouldn't go near him. I heard from Beatrice Dunlap that he's dangerous. Everyone all over the Peak is saying you should keep away from him.”
“If everyone keeps away from him, how's he supposed to get treatment?”
“Who said anything about giving him treatment? If he wanted treatment, he could come in and get it.”
“How could he do that if he's too aggressive to come near people? Mattox must have really hurt him bad if he won't even come around other Bruins. He wouldn't even shift to say hello to us.”
“If he wanted treatment, he could go to his own Homestead. He wouldn't come to us. That's for certain.”
Briar sighed. “Yeah, I know. I was just asking. I wonder if anyone else knows anything about him.”
“What is there to know? He challenged Mattox and he lost. End of story. He got hurt, and he's too proud or whatever to get treatment. If he wants to sulk in the woods, that's his problem. He didn't even have the good grace to come to Marla and Walker's wedding. I'm sure his mother was heartbroken.”
“It is pretty sad, though, when you think about it. It's not his fault Lyric fell for someone else. Riskin would have been married to his childhood sweetheart. He would have been Alpha of his tribe and had everything he wanted. He gave his whole life to the Mackenzies, and now he's got nothing, not even his sanity. There must be some way to help him.”
“You can't help him get Lyric and the Alpha position back. Whatever else he does, he'll have to learn to let that go, and he probably won't do that if he stays a bear in the woods. He should have gone straight home to his family when it happened instead of licking his wounds under a rock.”
Briar hummed under her breath and didn't answer. The battered filthy bear by the pool kept coming back to her. What was the point of making all these medicines and learning how to heal sick and injured people if she couldn't help the one person on this mountain who really needed it?
She didn't say anything more about Riskin, to her mother or anybody else, but she couldn't stop thinking about him. Someone around here must know something more about him than the same old story everybody already knew. What was he like before he went wild? Maybe his family didn't know how far he'd moved away from sanity and a decent Bruin life.
She turned the problem over in her mind for hours, but she never let herself sit still in the couch corner the way she did before. The tragedy of Melody Mackenzie's fall no longer bothered her. Riskin's problem took Melody's place, but he didn't depress her the way Melody did. He was right here, in her own backyard. He was a Bruin, a Bruin in need of a helping hand.
Toward evening, Briar heard her mother calling her downstairs. “How would you like to go visit Bass Cunningham? He needs to soak his infected ankle twice a day in Epsom salts, and I don't think he's doing it. You could check on him.”